Are You Real?
by TexasTurtleFan
Summary: Blaine sees magic in the world. He sees unicorns and princesses and trolls. And even if everyone says different, he knows there is something special about that pale creature in the park. And he's going to find out what. Baby!Klaine


_Thank so much to everyone who has reviewed "Third Time's The Charm". All that feedback is what prompted me to finally finish this one. You guys rock!_

_Forgive my blatant abuse of fairytales._

_So, who's ready for some Baby!Klaine?_

_Disclaimer: If I owned Glee, Darren Criss would be dating my twin and Chris Colfer would be my platonic soul mate. Wait... I guess that's more if I ruled the world. Oh well, we all know neither of those is true._

* * *

><p>Blaine understands a lot: more than the average toddler, he was sure.<p>

For instance, Blaine understood two things about his parents without having to ask.

Number one: his parents were trying to make him grow up too fast. After all, Blaine was just barely learning to read and they were already trying to take away his favorite book.

His dad was never happy when Blaine walked around with his book of fairytales. And his mom didn't like it when Blaine brought the creatures out of his book and into what she thought was "real life".

That was the second thing Blaine understood. His parents didn't see the magic anymore. And that made him sad. Because, it was so obviously everywhere. They had to have their eyes shut really tight to not see it.

Like the white horse at his grandma's house that never bit or kicked and let him ride on its back even if he accidentally pulled on the mane just had to be a unicorn because none of the other animals were that nice.

And those boys at the park that kicked him out of the sandbox were trolls because they were big and ugly and mean.

And if girls weren't princesses, then why was his dad always telling him that he had to treat them like princesses.

Really. It was everywhere. Blaine just seemed to be the only one to see it. He didn't mind much. But he had learned to keep such observations to himself.

For the most part.

But this was where the world got confusing and it was why Blaine liked his magic so much better than what everyone else saw.

His mom did not like it when he pointed out a new creature in the park. She was unhappy when he tried to show her trolls and princesses and elves (the little kids who played near the jungle gym that were always up to no good) and told him not to talk nonsense. (He kind of wondered if she and his dad knew that the day they first said that was the day he stopped thinking about them as Mommy and Daddy and they just became Mom and Dad, at least in his head. And he wasn't sure why, but that thought always made him sad.) So, Blaine didn't tell her about what he saw and used her words instead of the ones in his book.

But how was he supposed to keep quiet when he saw _that_?

The answer was simple: He wasn't.

"Mommy! Look! Look, Mommy, you gotta see!"

At least, the answer was simple to Blaine.

"What is it sweetheart?"

Blaine bit his lip a moment. He knew when his mom called him Sweetheart he was going to be in trouble unless he was careful. She was trying not to be mad, but he had to work to keep her that way.

But one glance over at the monkey bars, and he decided it was worth it.

"Over there, Mommy! You have to see!"

His mom looked, squinting like she did when she was trying to understand his drawings.

"What am I looking at?"

Blaine's jaw dropped. Honestly. How could she _not_ see?

"Right there, Mommy! It's an angel!"

Suddenly, brown eyes were focused on him and Blaine felt himself shrink. He had not done a good job at keeping his mom not mad.

"Blaine, that is not an angel. He's a little boy, just like you. You're being very silly."

Glancing over at the monkey bars, Blaine had to bite his lip again to keep from arguing.

It was impolite to argue. Especially if he argued with his parents.

But, that couldn't be just another little boy. He was little and maybe he didn't have wings or a halo. He was pale and had brown hair that looked so soft and eyes that were blue-but-also-kinda-green-and-maybe-a-little-gray-and-who-cares-cause-they-were-nice-to-look-at and couldn't his mom understand that nothing like this could ever be "just like" anything. Didn't his mother understand that this couldn't be another little boy? That only angels were that pretty.

Biting his lip worked because he didn't say any of those things. His mom then sent him away to go play.

Blaine pulled his book close to his chest and walked towards the trees where he could sit and read and watch. As soon as he was in his comfortable spot, he looked for the angel again.

Only this time, the angel wasn't alone. It was surrounded by the trolls.

The tiny boy watched in horror as the angel was pulled off the monkey bars and put on the ground. The trolls started yelling and laughing and then they were pushing the angel around, trying to knock it to the floor.

Blaine knew now that his mom had been a little right. This wasn't an angel. Nobody, not even mean trolls, could do that to an angel. (Besides, he was starting to remember that when his dad took him to church, someone said something about heaven and that's where angels were supposed to live and no one said anything about them being allowed to come back down.)

Also, he was pretty sure angels didn't fight back.

The pretty creature now shoved one of the trolls as hard as it could and actually knocked him down. And now it was yelling.

Blaine smiled despite himself. The voice was pretty too, even if it was screaming and angry.

So, no. Not an angel.

The troll that got pushed was not happy. He stood up and got the other trolls to push the beautiful-whatever-it-was down into the dirt. And they pushed it a lot harder than the troll had been pushed.

Blaine had dumped his book onto the ground and was already half way across the playground before he realized what he was doing. But then, it was proven that it wasn't necessary anyway as the creature had already gotten up and managed to escape the trolls. Blaine came to a stop, wanting to talk, but the creature just brushed past him and went into the trees.

And maybe he didn't know quite what it was yet, but something that beautiful just had to be followed.

Making sure not to forget his book, Blaine found the mysterious being in small clearing, surrounded by trees, kneeling in the grass.

It was wearing fancy clothes that were dirty and rumpled now. The soft hair was ruffled and out of place. Hands were pulled tight against a chest, undoubtedly scraped and in pain from being ripped from the monkey bars and shoved to the ground. And those blue/green/grey eyes were filled with tears.

It was more than sad. It didn't just make him feel bad.

Blaine's _heart _hurt.

"Please don't cry." The words just slipped out.

A soft gasp and then Blaine had its full attention.

Tears were still on its cheeks but no more were leaking from eyes that were now much more concerned with Blaine, looking him over, head to foot.

"Who are you?"

"Blaine." He whispered, afraid to talk too loudly, not entirely sure why.

After watching him a while longer, the still-without-a-name thing sniffed, quickly wiping its face clean, and stood, straightening the clothes, then offered a hand.

"Kurt." It said simply.

Taking the soft hand in his, Blaine felt a smile creep across his face.

Kurt. He liked that name.

Even after the handshake was over, Blaine couldn't find it in himself to let go. What if Kurt disappeared when he did? He had to make sure this wasn't all in his imagination.

"Are you real?"

Kurt made a face. Not the face his parents made when he talked about fairytales. That face was annoyed and tired. This face was confused, and maybe even a little scared.

"Of course I'm real. You're holding my hand, aren't you? How could you do that if I wasn't real?"

Blaine's cheeks burned but his smile didn't go away. And now that he knew that Kurt really was in this clearing with him, he fell back on his first question: What exactly was Kurt? Blaine thought really hard for a moment.

Kurt was still pretty (much prettier than anything Blaine had ever seen before) and had a sweet voice and soft hands (even if they were scraped right now) and seemed nice. And, Kurt with the trees and the grass made such a lovely picture. So maybe he (Blaine felt weird calling Kurt "it" now that he knew Kurt's name and decided that "he" sounded better) was a nature creature. It would have to be something small, because those trolls had been able to push him around so easily. Something Blaine could protect.

Blaine grinned at that thought because suddenly he had it. And Blaine knew a little fact about this creature that made something warm grow in his chest.

If he caught this creature and protected it, he got to keep it.

And he had been going to the monkey bars to defend Kurt. And he was holding Kurt's hand. And he really, really wanted to keep Kurt.

Once again, words slipped out of his mouth without his noticing.

"You're a fairy."

But then, suddenly Kurt's hand was gone and tears were back in his eyes. The warmth in Blaine's chest was gone and the hurt in his heart was back. He didn't understand. Why was Kurt unhappy?

"I am NOT a fairy!" Kurt screamed.

"But you're…" Blaine wanted to explain about everything, about wanting to keep him.

But Kurt didn't want to listen.

"I'm not a fairy." He muttered darkly. "I'm not a fag either."

And now Blaine was the one who was confused. "I didn't call you that. I said fairy."

"There's no difference." Kurt sat on the ground, curling into a tight little ball. "It's the same thing."

"No, it isn't."

From where Blaine was standing, there was a very big difference. He quickly sat beside Kurt, trying to see his face but Kurt wouldn't look at him.

"You're a fairy because you're small and pretty." He left out the protecting and hand holding because Kurt didn't seem very happy with Blaine right now and saying those things might make him mad. "I don't know what that other word means. Is it bad?"

"It's mean."

Blaine thought about that, trying to think of things that were mean so that he could understand why being called that would make Kurt so sad.

"Do you mean hag?"

"What?"

Blaine flipped his book open, searching through the pages, trying to find the right picture.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Kurt was soon peering over Blaine's shoulder just as the curly haired boy found what he was looking at and pointed at the picture.

"That's a hag. Is that what you thought I called you?"

Kurt stared at the picture of what was (to the best of his understanding) a witch. He stared at the strange boy, wondering if this was a new way to make fun of someone, but Blaine just kept talking.

"A hag is someone who casts bad spells to hurt other people. They're mean and ugly and trick kids with candy houses and then eat them and that's really different from a fairy so I don't know why you think they're the same thing cause they're not and I didn't call you a hag. I'm sorry if that's what you thought but now I get why you were mad cause if someone told me that I was trying to eat little kids, I'd cry too. So I won't call you a fairy anymore if you don't want me to."

At some point, Kurt forgot about telling Blaine that he hadn't meant hag and just got lost in the shorter boy's explanation. It was nice to know that Blaine wasn't calling him bad names, even if he did use one of those bad words.

This boy was nice.

"Did the trolls call you a hag?"

Confusing. But nice.

"The… what?"

"Trolls. The one's that pushed you down."

"You mean David and Charlie and Noah?"

Blaine shrugged. "I don't know their names. But they wouldn't let me play in the sandbox and they're huge and they smell. So they are trolls."

Kurt smiled.

Blaine just couldn't get past that. Couldn't stop thinking it because he caused it. He made it happen.

Kurt smiled.

So Blaine kept talking, telling Kurt all about the princesses and the unicorn and the castle in his backyard that everyone told him was just a tree house but it was way too awesome for that and as soon as he was old enough, he was going to put a moat around it and maybe some alligators to protect it against boring people who only saw a tree house but he would totally lower the drawbridge so Kurt could come up so they could play and that brought them back to what Kurt was because Blaine still didn't quite understand the problem but Kurt didn't like being called a fairy and after hearing a few more stories about the trolls (mostly Dave, who Blaine decided he didn't like even more than he didn't like the others because he was meanest to Kurt) who went to Kurt's daycare, he found out that Kurt didn't need protecting. And that actually made Blaine like him a little bit more (which was saying something) because he had never been able to fight back because he was short but that didn't stop Kurt.

Blaine was beginning to think that Kurt was a pixie, which was a lot like a fairy except nobody caught them and they were mischievous (and Blaine was super proud of himself for not only knowing such a big word, but also being able to say it in front of Kurt, whose eyes got super wide cause Blaine didn't even stutter or anything). But since a pixie was a lot like a fairy, Blaine didn't bring that part up because it still seemed to bother Kurt and he really liked his new friend (he hoped Kurt was his friend) and didn't want him to cry anymore.

But then, Kurt was telling a story about how Noah had taken a girl's Barbie away from her and made her cry. Her name was Rachel Berry and Kurt didn't like her most of the time because she was loud and selfish and had ugly sweaters but Kurt knew it was wrong to take someone else's toy and knew he would cry if someone took his doll (yes Kurt had dolls and he was very thankful when Blaine didn't say anything about it) so he went up to Noah and told him to give it back. Noah had pushed him down and stuck his tongue out at Rachel, which made her cry even more. So Kurt took the finger paint from the art area and threw it at Noah, who ducked so the paint missed but it made Noah drop the doll. Kurt got in trouble with the teacher for throwing things and his mommy told him not to solve problems with violence because he was better than that and should use his words next time he had a fight with someone. His daddy had agreed with his mommy and had put him in a time out (but then took him out for secret ice cream because he had shown that he had principles and that was what made a "real man" and his daddy was really proud. Kurt didn't really understand that part but was glad his daddy was proud of him. And that he got ice cream). Kurt didn't care that he got in trouble and said he would do the same thing if Noah decided to be mean again.

And Blaine knew now. He knew without a doubt what Kurt was and couldn't believe he'd been so stupid before. How could he have not seen?

"You're a dragon." Blaine whispered, very careful of his words this time, trying to make sure Kurt knew what he meant.

Now understanding the world of fairytales and Blaine's need to label things, Kurt knew what his new friend (he hoped Blaine was his friend because he was so much nicer than anybody else that Kurt had ever met) was talking about and needed no further explanation.

Blaine saw differently.

Again, the book was open and Blaine was hunting down the right picture. He found it and presented the picture to Kurt with a triumphant "Aha!"

Kurt had seen dragons in movies. He knew what they looked like: big, scaly lizards that could breathe fire and fly. It was nice to be called something that wasn't girly (more importantly, something that wasn't meant to hurt his feelings) but he didn't feel that dragons were all that special.

He had never been more wrong.

Blaine's picture was of a white dragon with the wings spread wide as if it were just about to take off into the air. It was practically glowing with strength and power. But its blue eyes were soft and kind.

It took Kurt's breath away.

"That's beautiful."

"Told you."

Kurt looked over at his friend (they were most definitely friends now) only to find that Blaine was already looking at him.

He wanted to tell Kurt why. Kurt was a dragon because he was stronger than trolls, more beautiful than princesses, nicer than the unicorn, and had more magic in his tri-colored eyes than Blaine had seen in the entire world. He wanted to tell Kurt all that.

He bit his lip, picking through words trying to find the right ones but nothing was good enough. So instead, he took Kurt's hand in his, interlocking their fingers, never wanting to let go.

Kurt stared at their joined hands for a long time. No one had ever held his hand before. It made him want to cry because it felt so nice and warm and why hadn't anyone done this with him before? But, at the same time, it made him super happy because he was pretty sure he only wanted to hold Blaine's hand because it fit perfectly with his and Blaine was really nice and funny and even though he talked a lot and talked really fast, he had such cool things to say and had curly hair that looked really soft and kind-of-reddish-brown-with-just-a-little-bit-of-green (when he got older, he would learn that the color was hazel) eyes that made him feel warm inside and no one (not even his mommy or daddy) made him feel that good.

"Blaine?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you?"

Blaine just stared for a long time.

Funny. All the times Blaine had tried to talk about his magic and explain to people what they were, no one had ever asked about him.

And now he had to say what he was to a _dragon_?

Blaine sat up straight, puffing out his chest, trying to look tall and important.

"I'm a wizard." His voice faltered ever so slightly on the next part, his shoulders hunching because he was half hoping Kurt wouldn't hear him. "I just… don't have any powers yet."

"Really?"

Wait. Did Kurt sound impressed? Blaine was sitting tall again.

"Yup! I mean, princes seem like nice people but all they do is save and marry princesses and that sounds boring. My brother says I'm a hobbit because I'm short and my hair's curly but he's never read my book so he can't know." Blaine leaned closer to whisper in Kurt's ear because this was super secret and only Kurt was allowed to hear. "I tell everyone that he's goblin cause he's smart and always saves all his tooth fairy money instead of spending it on gumballs. But, really, I think he's just another troll cause he's mean most of the time. Don't tell anyone?"

Kurt nodded with the utmost seriousness. "Cross my heart." And he did so.

Blaine grinned. "Thanks Kurt. Anyway, I wanted to be a wizard cause they get to go on all sorts of adventures and fight evil things and I've got the book of magic." Blaine held up his storybook with pride, something wiggly squirming happily in his stomach as he watched Kurt's eyes widen as he admired it.

"Wow." Kurt whispered.

Blaine's cheeks were starting to hurt from how much Kurt made him smile.

Did his mom really have to look for him now?

Both boys exchanged unhappy looks because now they could hear Kurt's mom as well and that meant that it was time to leave something new and it wasn't fair because there was such fun to be had here. But when had fun ever stopped parents before?

Kurt stood, straightening his clothes, shocked that he had forgotten all about the dirt on them after Blaine had shown up. He waited until Blaine had picked up his book before reaching his hand out, hoping Blaine would hold it again. Tingles started in his fingers, went up his arm and spread through his whole body when Blaine gripped it tightly, entwining their fingers again.

They came out through the trees together, and saw their mom's head towards them and knew it was time to part ways.

Kurt bit his lip before speaking. Blaine had taken his hand and was still holding it, which meant he was different than the other kids. But he was still nervous that the next answer would be no.

"Blaine?"

"Yeah Kurt?" Blaine always smiled when Kurt said his name and that made it hard for Kurt to breathe and somehow that made him happy.

"Can dragons and wizards go on adventures? You know… together?"

Of all the smiles Kurt had seen on Blaine so far, this was the widest, the brightest, and the happiest. The pale boy let out a surprised squeak when Blaine was suddenly hugging him.

"You betcha!"

Blaine took Kurt's hand again and ran, dragging Kurt in the direction of their mom's, talking faster than he ever had.

"Oh man Kurt! This is gonna be so awesome! And when I get my powers, we'll fight the trolls and then they can't be mean to us anymore! And all the princesses and princes will be our friends and maybe even the goblins if they promise to play nice. Then you can meet the unicorn cause I know she'll love you. And then we'll have the best castle ever! We'll go on whole bunches of adventures together!"

"Promise?"

Blaine pulled Kurt to a stop so that his new best friend (he would tell Kurt that they were best friends later but it felt like, at this moment, Kurt already knew) was facing him.

"Cross my heart." And he did so.

* * *

><p><em>Reviews make wizards and dragons happy. ;)<em>


End file.
